Man, Zhang Yuanqing mentally cursed. At this moment, within his consciousness, a gentle, warm glow slowly pulsed and danced. This glow emanated from the lie-detection device he was holding. The device’s principle was actually quite simple: first, observe you—by monitoring your mental fluctuations, micro-expressions, breathing patterns, skin pores, and even adrenaline secretion—to determine whether you're telling the truth or not. Second, control you—by applying a higher level of mental force—to compel you to tell the truth. The first category represented the scout’s insight ability. The second category, which Zhang Yuanqing had previously encountered, was embodied by the Tiger Seal. The current device belonged to the first category, but unlike the scout’s insight, it operated by entering his consciousness and observing his spiritual essence. Therefore, this situation could not be transferred to the cheerful, easygoing young man—it could only be passed on through the second type of mental control ability. In essence, the glow did nothing to Zhang Yuanqing; it merely observed him. Zhang Yuanqing now has to face a dilemma: if he avoids the President's questions, the Insight Technique will reveal his inconsistencies. If he lies, the brown antler will detect the falsehood. As a result, all his achievements will have to be submitted to the Hundred Flowers Association and the headquarters, in exchange for rewards and merit points. While his thoughts raced through his mind, a calm voice spoke: "I've been with him all night last evening. We can each serve as witnesses." The speaker was Zhao Chenguang. This second-generation spiritual heir of the Taiyuan Sect maintained an utterly composed expression and tone, and despite the collective gaze of the audience, he took the small antler from Zhang Yuanqing's hands and said, "Xia Chao Xue wasn't killed by me. Her death has nothing to do with me." The students and faculty immediately turned to the brown antler. It remained dark and ancient, unchanged. Neither the Primordial Celestial Sovereign nor Zhao Chenguang himself... The audience members now turned their attention to Yuan Ting and the Starry Sky Observer, their eyes filled with an ambiguous sense of suspicion. Zhao Chenghuang still held the brown little horn, speaking calmly: "Director, Yuanshi Tianzun has already proven his innocence. Why are you still asking whether he spent the entire night in his dormitory? Do you have any new leads? The students here are all frontline staff—when it comes to solving cases, we outperform even the faculty of the academy. If you have any information, please don’t hesitate to share it with us." His gaze was cold yet composed. Zhao Chenghuang nodded without expression, passing the small brown horn to Yuan Ting beside him. The students' eyes instantly sharpened, fixing intently on him. "Summer Dynasty Snow wasn't killed by me. She has nothing to do with my death," Yuan Ting declared loudly. The brown horn remained motionless. Relieved, Yuan Ting began to speak in his usual, habitual way: "I didn't know Summer Dynasty Snow very well. There wasn't much gossip about her. Um, I'm not saying I'm fond of gossip—just..." Suddenly, the brown horn in his hands emitted a bright, pure glow. Students who had just been disappointed now turned their attention fully to him, their eyes sharp, as if they had just seen a guilty criminal. The dean roared, "Yuan Ting, stand still—stand right where you are! Don't move!" As he spoke, he summoned a sword three feet long. The students and teachers quickly stepped back, forming a defensive stance. Yuan Ting, holding the brown horn, felt a bit at a loss. The dean barked, "Was Summer Dynasty Snow killed by you?" "Answer me!" "No!" The crowd glanced at the small brown figure. The headmaster raised his voice again: "Do you know Xia Chaoxue well?" "Not really!" The crowd turned to the brown figure again—still no response. Hmm? What caused the small figure to glow just now... Among the crowd, Zhang Yuanqing sighed impatiently: "Do you like gossip?" "I don't." The brown figure emitted a brilliant glow. Suddenly, silence fell. Yuan Ting felt a bit awkward. Everyone else felt equally uneasy. The headmaster hadn't expected this outcome, stood stunned for a while, then composed himself and changed the subject: "Next." Zhang Yuanqing smoothly added: "Headmaster, please avoid asking irrelevant questions. And, colleagues, refrain from saying irrelevant things." Yuan Ting exhaled deeply, setting the lie-detection device aside toward the distant astronomer. "Xia Chaoxue wasn't killed by me. Her death has nothing to do with me." The astronomer spoke calmly. The brown figure remained unresponsive. The crowd gasped once again. The killer wasn't the star official, was it? "If not the star official, then someone must have used props to commit the crime," said Lin Su, the calm and composed teacher from the Herbal Medicine class. "Everyone could be the killer—including the female students." "How can the female students have had sex with Xue Xiao Xia?" one of the female trainees questioned. The composed Lin Su replied, "Didn't we find any male seminal fluid inside Xue Xiao Xia's body, did we?" The group fell into thoughtful silence. If we had found the seminal fluid, my red ballet shoes would have immediately identified the killer—there'd be no need for all this fuss," Zhang Yuan thought to herself. Next, under the supervision of the dean, every single person underwent a lie-detection round. The same situation repeated itself—the killer remained elusive. Everyone passed both the lie-detection and insight tests. This meant the killer possessed a unique hidden ability, rendering both lie-detection and insight ineffective. This outcome undoubtedly deepened the trainees' suspicions and anxiety, as they now exchanged glances filled with quiet caution and distrust. The senior dean pondered for a long time before speaking slowly: "Everyone must immediately head to the library and write down in full detail what happened from last night until this morning. Starting now, trainees will be paired up—during meals, sleep, and even when using the restroom—no one may leave within three meters of their partner until the culprit is identified or the training period concludes." Today marked the fourth day since entering Qinfeng Academy, with only three days remaining before the training ends. "Wait!" Zhang Yuanqing's voice interrupted the group's movement toward the library. He fixed his gaze on the white-haired elder. "Dean, you too must undergo the lie-detection test." Before the senior dean could respond, Zhang Yuanqing turned to Guo Huo Zhu and Ren Junzi. "You two will keep a close watch on the dean." The pressure was now squarely on the dean. "Agreed!" The headmaster nodded, raised the small brown horn in his hands, and, under everyone's gaze, spoke firmly: "Xia Chaoxue wasn't killed by me. Her death has nothing to do with me." The brown horn was old and rustic, without any glow. ... 10:30 a.m. Café. Zhang Yuanqing took a sip of coffee, his eyes fixed on the flowerbed outside. The sunlight was bright, the flowers vibrant, and butterflies danced gracefully among the blooms, while bees went about their daily duties. He pressed his hands against the headphones embedded in his ear: "From now on, any discussion must be conducted through the headphones. Please remember this." Across from him sat Xia Hou Aotian, with a handsome appearance. To his left sat Zhao Chenghuang and Sun Miaomiao, and to his right, Tianxia Guihuo and Hong Jiguo. Six people, three pairs. Due to the headmaster's rule requiring pairs, Zhang Yuanqing weighed the options and concluded that if one more person had to be included, Hong Jiguo was the most reliable. "Understood!" replies came through the headphones from the other four. "The situation isn't looking optimistic. Xia Chaoxue's death seems suspicious—I suspect the killer was targeting us from the start," Zhang Yuanqing said. "Our initial suspicion points to the Dean," Zhao Chenghuang's voice came through the headset. "The question he asked the Yuanshixian Tianzun in the girls' dormitory courtyard has already revealed his identity." "Are you saying the Dean is one of the Armored Ones?" Tianxia Guihuo put it precisely. Xia Chaoxue's death was both unexpected and illogical—everyone found it unreasonable. But after the Dean asked that question, the underground team suddenly became alert. They knew the Armored One wasn't Yuanshixian Tianzun, and they knew the Armored One had been eyeing the treasure beyond the stone gate. Zhao Chenghuang nodded silently. "I don't think so," said Xia Hou Aotian, the fangshi with serious personality flaws, stirring his coffee as he tried to articulate his reasoning: "First of all, how did the Armored One know the stone gate had been opened? He's been monitoring the lake floor all along, hasn't he?" If so, he had no need to kill Xia Xiaoxue at all—he could have simply come straight to us. "Moreover, it doesn't make sense that the Director killed Xia Xiaoxue. As the Director appointed by the Hundred Blossom Association, he discovered the stone gate had been opened and promptly reported it to headquarters. "We are all respectable, well-known individuals with formal titles. Headquarters would find it quite straightforward to investigate us afterward. Wouldn't we be the ones on the run, then?" Sun Miaomiao agreed. "The Director killed Xia Xiaoxue and staged this drama solely to identify who had entered the underground sanctuary? That reasoning falls short." Zhang Yuanqing adjusted his words, his thoughts flickering: "At first, I thought the Dean was the Armor Person, but Miao Miao's insights have convinced me otherwise—her analysis is correct." Sun Miao Miao beamed, proudly showing off her two little tiger teeth. In fact, Zhang Yuanqing had already thought of this. He simply said it to give Sun Miao Miao a sense of being favored. "I've seen the Armor Person—he's likely a student. That night, I watched him clumsily search for the stone gate, clearly not someone who had rehearsed his route. If the Dean were the Armor Person, after all these years at the academy, wouldn't he have visited the gate at least once?" Zhang Yuanqing's voice carried clearly to everyone. "Before the operation last night, I mentioned that the Sea-Deer people, the faculty, and the giant tigers on the island were all hidden guardians of the mission—how could the Dean not know the location of the stone gate?" The world turned to fire, sipped at his coffee, glanced around the empty café, paused briefly at the staff behind the counter, then looked back: "There are three factions within the academy. One is the hidden guardians with assigned missions, another is the armored personnel, and the third is us. The armored personnel discovered the stone gate had been opened, so they killed people to create disturbances, hoping to locate us. Logically, this makes sense—but it raises four questions: First, why was Xia Chao Xue the one who died? Second, why did the dean himself ask this question? Third, which faction exactly is the armored personnel? And fourth, how did they know the stone gate had been opened? The last question is the most crucial. Unless I resolve it, I can't feel at ease—there's a constant sense that I'm being watched at all times. One thing is certain: the armored man has no idea who entered the stone gate—yet this contradicts his murder act this morning, since we believed his motive for killing was to create a disturbance and locate the people who had entered through the gate. Zhang Yuanqing paused for a few seconds, then had an idea. He stood up and said, "I'll go to the restroom." Passing by one coffee table after another, he entered the restroom, locked the door, closed the toilet lid, sat down, closed his eyes, and mentally visualized his father's appearance. Not long afterward, his mind surged with activity, and various meaningless noises roared in his ears, while fragmented, chaotic scenes flashed by one after another. This state of confusion persisted for a long time—until blood seeped from Zhang Yuanqing's nostrils and he began to sweat coldly from the pain—only then did it finally subside. The first image that surfaced in his mind was of his first departure from the dormitory, when he had entered the merfolk lake. He mentally traced back four days. The scenes unfolded one after another, and soon he saw the armored man appearing that night. Saw himself hidden beneath the projecting cliff stone. As that night, the armored figure drifted through the depths of the Hundred-Beasts Island, searching, since the stone gate stood out prominently and was soon located. The armored figure stopped before the gate, gazing at the circular opening carved with the image of the mythical phoenix. This scene, Zhang Yuanqing still remembers clearly. Then, he realized—he would be discovered by the merfolk. The very next moment, a group of merfolk swayed their tails and swiftly approached. At that instant, Zhang Yuanqing observed the armored figure extend his hand, gently brushing it across the circular opening, then turning to face the merfolk. In that fleeting moment, through the flowing frames of the scene, he saw the figure slightly curling his palms, as if holding something in his palm. The subsequent frames showed the armored figure fleeing from the merfolk's pursuit. "Ah—" Zhang Yuanqing pressed his forehead, enduring a sharp pain as though his brain were splitting open. He sat with his head bowed on the toilet seat, blood continuously dripping from his nostrils. After a long while, his headache eased, and he, drenched in sweat, wiped away the blood from his nose with a casual gesture, leaning weakly against the toilet. "Ah, so it was a material—something invisible to the naked eye—that he applied to the 'keyhole'... The armored man deduced that the stone gate had been opened by analyzing the traces of damage. "He didn't know who specifically it was, so he decided to kill Xia Xiaoxue?" "That night, when he infiltrated the merfolk lake, he wasn't just there for reconnaissance—he was a cunning adversary. But there's a problem: the armored man seemed to know someone could open the stone gate. That doesn't make sense. "He noticed us the moment we emerged, which means he visits the lake every night to check for traces." Zhang Yuanqing pulled out a roll of paper, wiped the blood from the floor, and flushed it down the drain. He pushed open the door to the stall, washed his face, and stepped out, returning to the coffee table. "How long did you go?" Sun Miao-miao remarked upon seeing him return, tossing a complaint, "Are you having constipation?"